These were extremely strange lights that were sighted by myself and my wife just after Midnight on New Years Day, 2009. (Yes, there were fireworks going off and no, these were not fireworks!) As a bit of background, I've been a Police Officer for 17 years, all of these being on operational duties. I served in the Royal Air Force for six years and I have a life long interest in aircraft, thanks to my father. I would say that I am very knowledgeable about aircraft types. I am always looking up at aircraft so I am used to seeing things in the air.

Just before Midnight on 31st December 2008, my wife and I went into our loft room in order to watch the fireworks going off over Cardiff. The velux windows in the loft face north and we had a view of 180 degrees from west to east. The weather was dry with a slight haze. Even with the haze, visibility was good.

At about 00.05 hours, I saw an orange coloured ball of light over the west of Cardiff. I would estimate that it was about 3 miles away from my position and at a height of about 5000ft. There were no strobe lights on this object and it moved at a steady pace from south to north, in a straight, horizontal line. It was in sight for about 10 seconds before disappearing, and it did just vanish from sight as there were no objects between it and me to obscure it from view. When I first saw it, I pointed it out to my wife who watched it as well.

Within about 5 seconds of the first object disappearing, I saw another one, this time directly in front of my position so it was over the north of Cardiff, at about the same height but I would estimate at a distance of 2 miles. It was exactly the same colour as the first and moved from east to west, again in a straight, horizontal line, remaining at the same height. It remained in view for about 10 seconds and then just disappeared, like the first one.

Within 10 seconds, I saw yet another object, exactly the same as the first two and exactly the same colour. This one was above my position and was moving from east to west. It was bigger than the first two and I believe that it appeared so because it was at a lower height. Again, it moved in a straight line and was visible for about 5 seconds before vanishing. Also again, there was nothing that could have obscured my view of it such as a building it could have flown behind etc.

At this point, my wife decided that she had seen enough and went downstairs and, unfortunately, I had to go with her. The sight of the lights had spooked her.

I have mentioned these lights to colleagues and one of them put forward the Chinese lantern theory but the lights just appeared, travelled in a straight, horizontal line and then disappeared. They were in three completely different places and they did not have the flight characteristics of a floating lantern.

These things weren't travelling at a high speed. I would say the speed was about that of a helicopter. In fact, when I saw the first light, I thought that it was the Police helicopter but the colour of the light and the widespread locations as well as the complete lack of any strobe or other flashing lights on the objects soon dispelled that idea.